ARM ‘no longer at the top of the mobile mountain’ says MIPS
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MIPS Technologies has announced the first non ARM based smartphone to pass the Android Certification Test Suite (CTS).
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The CTS is a necessary condition to enable access to the Android Market, enabling the use of the Android logo on a device and ensuring compatibility with the multitude of apps.
Until now, all devices in the market have been based on the ARM architecture, however, the Android Froyo smartphone has an SoC from Ingenic Semiconductor based on the MIPS32 architecture. Retailing at under $100, the phone is shipping across Europe, China, India and there are plans to roll out to North America.
Amit Rohatgi, principal architect, Mobile at MIPS, said "MIPS will clearly accelerate the proliferation of Android as we bring Android not only to additional mobile handset SoCs, but also to the consumer electronics manufacturers that long ago selected MIPS based SoCs as their gold standard for products such as digital tvs, set top boxes and Blu-ray players. ARM is no longer alone on top of the mobile mountain. We like it up here, and we are here to stay."